Update on the dumplings

I made the dumplings tonight (loosely) based on the recipe I posted the other night.

The dough was exactly the same as the dumplings we had at the restaurant, a little thicker than wonton wrappers and the kids loved them!

A friend of mine stopped by with her kids and told me that Indian bread and samosas are based on the same dough, basically water and flour. We stood together at the island and rolled out little balls of dough and filled them with the delicious filling of ground beef, napa cabbage, mushrooms, green onions and bamboo shoots. I cooked them in a bamboo steamer, but they could just as easily have been dropped into a pot of boiling water.

We are going to have another dumpling evening, but make extras to freeze.

I had lots of extra filling and froze it for future dumpling making. The filling would also be good for pot stickers or egg rolls.

Chinese take out

I could not fit an "at-home" dinner in tonight between softball uniform and gear pickup (separate locations), horseback riding, after-school aerodynamics class, and horseback riding. We went to our favorite local Chinese restaurant. The girls ordered soup and I ordered steamed vegetable dumplings, which (surprise) the kids ate most of.

We agreed that we should make these dumplings at home, here is a recipe similar to the pot stickers we made a while back, however the dumpling skins are homemade.

For the filling:
1/2 lb ground beef
1 C. napa cabbage, minced
3 green onions, minced
7 shitake mushrooms, minced
1/2 cup bamboo shoots, minced
3 cubes frozen ginger
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp corn starch

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water

Dipping sauce:
1/2 C. soy sauce
1/4 C rice wine vinegar
a few drops of sesame oil
1 cube frozen ginger
1 cube frozen garlic
1/2 C. thinly sliced green onion
1/2 tsp. sugar
chili garlic paste (optional)

Combine all filling ingredients, and cook in a large nonstick pan until beef is cooked through, 7-8 minutes. The dumplings can also be made without beef. Let filling cool before making into dumplings.

For the dough:
Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. Pour the contents into a sturdy bowl or onto a work surface and knead until uniform and smooth. The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky.[Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry dough and have to add more water).

Cut the dough into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side.

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add dumplings to pot. Boil the dumplings until they float.

To steam: Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface and steam for about 6 minutes.

Planning to make these tomorrow, if they are good will freeze and fry up as pot stickers for next weeks softball practice dinner.

Turkey pot stickers

It was a snowy day here today and the girls are obsessed with their new DS game "Cooking Mama". I thought we'd actually cook something that the girls had "made" on their game.

We made turkey pot stickers tonight and everyone got involved in the process.

To begin:

Brown 1 lb. of ground turkey meat in 1 tbs. of peanut oil, 3 cubes of frozen garlic and 3 cubes of frozen ginger. Saute until almost cooked through, being sure to break up the bits as it cooks, about 7 minutes.

Add 3 tbs. soy sauce, 2 tbs. rice wine vinegar, and 1/4 C. of sweet and sour sauce. Add in 2 cups of cabbage, 4 scallions, and 1/2 C. bamboo shoots (the canned ones). Cook on medium high until all of the liquid has evaporated. Taste and add more soy sauce as needed.

Boil water in a pot while you prepare the 2nd step.

Add the turkey/cabbage mixture into a Cuisinart and pulse until the meat and vegetables are finely chopped but not smooth. Just a couple pulses. There should be no big chunks of anything (see photo).

Put a little water into a bowl and open your wonton wrappers.

Dip your finger into the water and line the edges of the wrapper. Add a small spoonful of turkey mixture onto 1 half of the wrapper and cover with the other half being sure to seal the wonton. If it won't seal, add a little more water to the edges and press down firmly.

Make a bunch, then drop into the boiling water for 15 seconds tops. You can either eat them like this or pan fry the pot stickers in a little peanut oil (which is what we did).

The brown quickly in the peanut oil.

After doing a demo of the wonton, the girls quickly got the hang of it. Kirk brought them to the boiling water. I boiled and removed the pot stickers and added them to the pan to quickly pan fry them.

I had the girls cut 2 scallions with a pair of scissors to garnish the pot stickers and I made a quick dipping sauce of:
1/4 C. soy sauce
2 tsp. rice wine vinegar
1 pinch of sugar
1 tsp. sweet and sour sauce

We all enjoyed our dinner and can't wait to make these again.